


Deep In Dark Water

by Measured



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Angst, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, Series Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-02
Updated: 2015-06-02
Packaged: 2018-04-02 11:14:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4057906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured/pseuds/Measured
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Grima is defeated, Tiki falls to her nightmares, and is trapped in a world with her fears and regrets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deep In Dark Water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rosage](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosage/gifts).



> Happy (late) birthday, Em. It decided it wanted to be much longer than originally planned.
> 
> For those who never played the earlier games Tiki was in, (some spoilers) she was forced into a state of sleep twice due to her power, and for one of them, she was haunted by constant nightmares of going feral and killing everyone she loved.
> 
> Thanks to Ginger for the betaing.

Dreaming was falling into darkness and watching the world pass by her from below the depths. Like being underwater and watching hints of a world she would no longer know as she lost more and more of herself, the horrors and dark shapes would claw out at her. At first they were monstrous and indistinct, but the shapes turned to warped reflections, like a looking pool cut with a falling stone. The ripples were shades of herself destroying everything she'd ever loved. The king turned into red gashes and bone, the castle stones destroyed in a fury she did not understand.

Of all the horrors she'd known, it was that vision of herself, which lingered long into the waking hours, long after Marth had died. Humans were so fragile, so short-lived.

As was happiness. 

Especially the happiness tied to humans, the fleeting ones. Few lived even a mere hundred years. Centuries were unfathomable to them, their legacies were short bursts, like a spring flower hit with frost too soon.

A thousand years of night horrors were locked away inside her, with only the faint memories of those she'd loved. Those she'd never see again. Lost to time, and memories of another era. One where she had managed a fleeting happiness.

After waking in this era, she barely slept. Days passed, night skies to dawn, dawn to dusk. Even as sleep tried to take her back into that horror, she fought. Fatigue would remind her that soon she would have to give in, to go back to that darkness. Each night was a risk of losing herself again.  
Sometimes she would lose, and wake with a start, gasping for breath as she clawed her way up from the depths again.

She had woken, she still survived. The dreams had not won. The clawed, vicious self trapped in those worlds had not escaped.

But as the war came to a close, fatigue claimed her again. A longer sleep, a dark path she had known for most of her life.

The road of dreams.

*

She stepped out into the darkness. She could not tell if the warrior that passed, like a shade was Marth or his ancestor who'd taken a mask and his name. A dripping sound of dark water. She turned to the noise behind her, a wall of night edging closer.

"Do you truly think you can ever be happy again?"

The monster took the shape of a girl she'd once known. A girl who had loved a king, who'd had tricks played on her by a shapeshifter, who'd been lost to dreams so many times.

"I can try," Tiki said.

Her doppelganger changed. Her teeth lengthened, there was a viciousness in her eyes.

"But can you escape the beast in yourself? You'll destroy them all, won't you, daughter of Naga?"

The words were said in such a sweet voice, but they stung, like thorns pushed deep in her skin.

"I am...not the person I once was," Tiki said.

The dripping sound got louder. The water rose, until it was just her and the leviathan of her reflection. Wings spread, teeth bared, the feral creature waited for her. 

"You will be alone again. How will you handle losing everyone you have ever loved? Will you destroy every city until there is nothing but ruins? Will you be nothing more than Medeus or Grima in another form?"

Her reflection laughed, a girlish giggle that she hadn't known in centuries.

_"In the end, I'm just an inevitability."_

"I..."

_I could sleep. I could lock myself away, until it is just you and I._

She looked up through the depths. She could no longer see the moon or stars. The Mila tree had disappeared, along with the cherry tree blossoms, and the rest of Valm. Grima might rest in the depths, but were they truly safe as long as she lived?

_Is this all my life will be? A prison, with you as my only companion?_

She fell to her knees. Bubbles rose up to a sky she could no longer see. The other her smiled, toothy and wide. Her lips were flecked with blood.

Tiki closed it out, until the darkness was a singularity. Nothing but her empty, numb prison. Drowning to live, drowning to save.

"Stand back!"

Tiki opened her eyes to find she wasn't alone. Say'ri stood with her sword drawn, right between her and the past vision of her. Under the deep waters, Say'ri's black hair undulated. Tiki had seen her fierce swordplay many a time, even fought battles by her side.

"I have sworn to protect my lady with my life; I will not hesitate to cut you down," Say'ri said.

_No one ever joined me here in this prison, not even him._

"I told you that I would protect you with my life. Now, stand back, my lady. I will fend her off."

"She will live only a fragment of time," the reflection said. "She is a warrior. Death could claim her tomorrow."

"I know," Tiki said. "But then, at least I would have lived."

"She isn't here. Even this is just your memories playing tricks on you," said the reflection. 

"True...but so are you. You are nothing more than my fears."

The reflection tilted her head and laughed. "Finally, you started to wise up. It's only taken you over a thousand years."

The water grew clearer. As she looked up, Tiki could see the sky through a haze of bubbles. She lost sight of Say'ri, of the doppelganger, until all she could see was the flicker of a distant flame, and a flicker of a faint hope.

*

The first thing she saw on waking was sleek black hair shining in the candlelight. She took everything in degrees: the ridge of white fur, the purple hues and hard black lacquer of her armor. For moments, Say'ri's composure faltered with hints of worry and relief. Through the window she saw the darkness, the new moon and many stars. The scent of cherry blossoms reminded her what land she was in. Not the landscape of the past, of long dead kings and lost graves. Names lost to legends.

"My lady, you---" Say'ri said.

"Say'ri?" Tiki said. She felt the warmth of skin, and realized she was holding Say'ri's hand in hers.

"You slept for days, my lady," Say'ri said. Her voice was grave. "We thought that you had been sundered again. I... did not know if you would ever return to us."

Only days this time. She'd made her way back from the dark. 

"I wasn't alone then, was I?" Tiki said. She yawned; the sleep hadn't quite let go. The world still held a half-awake mist.

"I kept a vigil here by your side. Whatever place you were, it was not kind to you. You mumbled cries for help, and at one point, you even cried."

_Then it wasn't a dream, not entirely. Because you were there, even when I faced the fears that threatened to consume me._

"My lady, are you hungry? I could fetch the cook; some rice will be ready for you---" 

"Just stay here for a little while longer, that's all I ask," Tiki said.

"Of course, my lady. I will stay by your side as long as I draw breath," Say'ri said.

And even if that was only days, only moments, Tiki would take that chance.


End file.
